Marcus Paige readjusts in the air before hitting his game-tying 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left in last April’s national championship game

Marcus Paige, who distinguished himself both on the court and in the classroom during his basketball career at North Carolina, has been named one of the three 2016 winners of the Patterson Medal — the highest athletic award given by his school.

Paige is the 28th men’s basketball player to receive the award, but only the fifth in the last 25 years, joining Tyler Zeller (2012), Tyler Hansbrough (2009), Brendan Haywood (2001) and Antawn Jamison (1998).

His fellow recipients are Kristen Brown, the ACC’s all-time softball home run leader, and Emily Wold, a three-time first-team field hockey All-American.

Paige, UNC’s first three-time captain, is one of only two players in ACC history to score 1,800 points, have 500 assists, grab 350 rebounds, make 275 three-pointers, and have 200 steals.

He was the backbone of a team that advanced all the way to the national championship game this spring. Although Villanova went on to win the title, his double-clutching, game-tying 3-pointer in the final seconds against Villanova will go down as one of the most famous in Tar Heel history.

In the classroom, the Iowa native was a double major in media and journalism and history. He became the first Tar Heel and just the third ACC player to earn Academic All-America honors three times, twice winning the Skip Prosser Award as the ACC’s top scholar-athlete for men’s basketball.

“Marcus is one of the finest two-way players I’ve ever coached,” Tar Heel coach Roy Williams said in a statement. “He is a wonderful blend of an elite athlete, scholar and leader, and all-around quality young man.

“It’s been a privilege to coach Marcus. He’s meant so much to Carolina as a representative of our student body and an exceptional basketball player. Whether it was running the team as our point guard, making more threes than any Tar Heel, or being our best defensive player an unprecedented four times, Marcus has left an indelible mark on the history of Carolina basketball.”

Brown

Wold

Brown set the all-time ACC home run record with her 66th round-tripper in walk-off fashion in the 2016 NCAA Tournament. The only Tar Heel with 10 or more home runs in each of her four seasons, Brown earned first-team All-America honors as a senior after earning third-team honors in 2015.

She is the first softball player to ever win the Patterson Medal.

Wold led UNC’s field hockey team to an 81-15 record, four Final Four berths and two ACC championships. She is the sixth UNC field hockey player to earn first-team All-America honors in at least three seasons. She was the MVP of the 2015 ACC Tournament after leading the Tar Heels to the title.